The present invention relates to service of customers"" systems, and more particularly to a method and system for evaluating the serviceability of a system, particularly a computer system.
When systems, such as computer systems, are provided to a customer, there is always the possibility that some portion of the system will fail. For example, although a lap top computer and a server are very different computer systems, each might fail under certain conditions. The ease with which the system can be serviced in the face of such a failure or maintained is known as the serviceability of the system.
Serviceability can be broken into at least three categories. The three categories are customer self help, support enablement and service enablement. Customer self help allows a customer to address a problem without intervention by a manufacturer. Thus, customer self help features are those which assist the customer in resolving questions, concerns, perceived problems and/or product failures. Serviceability features that might be provided for customer self help include providing manuals for or help features on a computer system. Support enablement allows a customer to solve problems with the aid of the manufacturer, for example through a help line. Thus, support enablement features are those which assist the help center or support center for the manufacturer in their effort to resolve the customer""s problem remotely. Serviceability features that might be provided for support enablement include clearly marking certain parts which are more likely to fail so that a remote determination of the failed part can be made by the service engineer manning the help line. In service enablement, the manufacturer solves the problem for the client, for example through a visit to the customer by a service engineer or by having the customer return the system to the manufacturer. Serviceability features that might be provided for service enablement include placing a part which is likely to fail in a location that is relatively easy to reach.
The serviceability of the system is a consideration a customer may take into account in purchasing the system and is a factor the manufacturer must account for in order to determine how to allocate resources towards servicing the system. Serviceability is particularly important in complex or expensive systems, such as networks, which a customer relies upon or which the customer expects to be reliable or rapidly serviced. Thus, it is desirable to ensure that the serviceability of a system meets certain standards and to increase the serviceability of a system when a new version of the system is developed. Furthermore, it is desirable to improve the serviceability of a system in the three categories of customer self help, support enablement and service enablement. Improved serviceability is desirable because each time a system breaks down and must be repaired, a customer""s business is disrupted. As a result, the customer may lose time and resources due to the loss of the system and due to the repair itself. The length of the disruption depends upon factors such as the ability to predict failures of certain portions of the system, redundant features in the system, the time to diagnose failures and the time to correct failures. These and other factors affect the serviceability of the system. Thus, customers typically desire a system which has improved serviceability.
FIG. 1 depicts a flow chart of a conventional method 10 for improving the serviceability of a system. The method 10 is typically used during development of a system or a new version of the system, but may also be used in improving the system after it has been purchased by a customer. Engineers familiar with the system typically assess the serviceability of the system and make suggestions they believe will result in an improvement in serviceability, via step 12. The assessment may be based on the engineers"" knowledge of previous versions of the system, customers"" desires and competing products. These and other changes may be made to the system, via step 14. The engineers may then reassess the serviceability of the system and make new suggestions for improvement, via step 16. This process of assessing the serviceability of the system, making changes and reassessing the system is typically repeated, via step 18. Typically, steps 12 through 16 are repeated several times during development and, often, during use of the system by the customer.
Although the serviceability of a system may be improved in this conventional method 10, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there are several drawbacks to the conventional method 10. The changes suggested by the engineers and made to the system are typically determined in an ad hoc fashion. There is typically no clear indication, other than the belief of the engineer, that the serviceability of the system will improve through the changes. In addition, there is no indication of how much a particular change might improve the serviceability of the system. Furthermore, there are no clearly definable criteria for evaluating the serviceability of the system. Instead, as described above, it is based on the belief of the engineer. Furthermore, each engineer may have a personal bias as to what changes will improve the serviceability of the system and how much a particular change will improve serviceability. Thus, it is difficult for a manufacturer to accurately and repeatably determine whether serviceability has improved and whether the current level of serviceability is sufficient.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for evaluating the serviceability of a system. The present invention addresses such a need.
The present invention provides a method and system for evaluating the serviceability of a system is disclosed. The method and system comprise obtaining a comparison of the system with a plurality of criteria and calculating at least one serviceability score based on the comparison. The comparison includes an objective measure of the serviceability of the system for each of the plurality of criteria.
According to the system and method disclosed herein, the present invention provides a tool that provides an objective measure of the serviceability of a system. Thus, the development of the system can be tailored to improve the serviceability of the system.